PolyTherics moves lead candidate into development and manufacturing with DSM BioSolutions

09-Sep-2010 - United Kingdom

DSM BioSolutions, DSM’s microbial fermentation CMO business unit and PolyTherics Limited announced that they have entered into an agreement for the process development and manufacture of PolyTherics’ lead biobetter product, HiPEG™ IFN alpha-2a.

PolyTherics has applied its HiPEG™ site-specific PEGylation technology to interferon alpha to produce a product (HiPEG™ IFN alpha-2a) that has eight-fold higher activity than a marketed PEGylated interferon in vitro and a comparable half-life in a preclinical study.

HiPEG™ specifically attaches poly(ethylene) glycol (PEG) to a histidine tag at the end of the protein; histidine tags are commonly used to improve protein stability and to facilitate the purification of proteins. PolyTherics is seeking partners for the development of HiPEG™ IFN alpha-2a for hepatitis C.

DSM has successfully started development, scale-up and manufacture of the recombinant his-tagged IFN alpha-2a. PolyTherics will transfer its proprietary HiPEG PEGylation method to DSM so that the process can also be scaled-up. The companies intend to develop a robust process to produce sufficient material for preclinical development and then for cGMP production of HiPEG™ IFN alpha-2a for clinical development.

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